How To: Permission Marketing

by "Get it Done Girl" on February 2, 2011 · 1 comment

in How To:,small biz,Social Media

Last week I wrote about how Drip Marketing works. I got a lot of positive feedback from my readers, so I thought I’d continue in the educational vein with my post today. Drip marketing works because permission marketing exists.

Permission marketing is a phrase created by Seth Godin that is used in relation to marketing — specifically e-marketing. Marketers basically ask permission to send e-newsletters to prospective customers, for example. Permission marketing can also be utilized by direct marketers who send a catalog in response to a request — this all works because the marketer has the prospect’s permission to market to them.

Permission marketing requires that the prospective customer has given permission for the marketer to send their promotional message, i.e. you follow the marketer on Twitter, you’re a fan of their Facebook FanPage, you subscribe to their blog, you’ve opted in to receive their e-newsletters…and then the drip marketing begins.

This concept is obviously a better use of a marketer’s limited resources because their prospect has already expressed an interest in the marketer’s product or service. Instead of blanketing a certain geographic area or market segment with fliers, the marketer can send catalogs to those who have opted in to receive them.

How are you using permission marketing and drip marketing in your business? How should your marketing strategy change in light of these new concepts and the advent of new media?

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How To: Drip Marketing

by "Get it Done Girl" on January 24, 2011 · 1 comment

in How To:,small biz,Social Media,Super Tools

During my discussions with small business owners, I would mention the term “drip marketing” and 9 times out of 10 I would get the confused look. Let’s fix that:

Definition from Wikipedia

Drip Marketing is a communication strategy that sends, or “drips,” a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time. These messages often take the form of E-mail marketing, although other media can also be used. Drip marketing is unique from other database marketing in two ways: (1) the timing of the messages follow a pre-determined course; (2) the messages are dripped in a series applicable to a specific behavior or status of the recipient.

Drip Marketing Mediums

E-mail. The most commonly used form of drip marketing is E-mail marketing, due to the low cost associated with sending multiple messages over time. Email drip marketing is often used in conjunction with a Form (web) in a method called an Autoresponder. In this method, a lead completes the form on a company’s website and is then enrolled in a drip marketing campaign with messaging appropriate to the form’s context.

Direct Mail. Although more costly, direct mail software has been developed that enables drip marketing techniques using standard postal mail.

Social Media. The principles of Drip Marketing have been applied in many social media marketing tools to schedule a series of updates. HootSuite, allows users to time messages and dissemenate via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and several other social media sites simultaneously.

CRM. CRM systems can automate the tactical delivery of the drip marketing message, triggering a system generated email, scheduling a follow up call or prompting social media posts.

How does the Get It Done Girl utilize Drip Marketing?

E-Mail. I utilize MailChimp to deliver my twice/month e-newsletter. It’s free for up to 1000 email addresses and the metrics are great (I can tell who opened the email, how many times and if they clicked on any of the links, for example). I have a sign-up form for the newsletter on my website and I include a link to a sign-up form in my e-signature and on all of my printed materials. I also automatically sign people up for my e-newsletter if we’ve met at a networking event and we’ve had a discussion which would lead me to believe that they may need my services, but aren’t quite ready to “buy” yet. Drip…drip…I’m reminding my prospects that I’m here…

Direct Mail. Haven’t used yet…

Social Media. My bread-and-butta. Whether you use HootSuite or Tweetdeck, finding a system that allows you to schedule messages you’d like to send to your followers/fans/connections is a great way to free up your time during the week. Don’t schedule engagement, just articles you’d like to share, announcements about your business or any other similar message. Drip…drip…I’m reminding my prospects about what I do and why I’m good at it…

CRM. I’ve got my own CRM system I’ve developed in-house. It’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and it works for me… If you’re a larger enterprise dealing with several projects, stakeholders and prospects OR are just completely unorganized and need some support, consider utilizing a pre-build CRM. A couple include Sales Force, Solve360 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Drip…drip…I’m demonstrating my brand even through how I follow-up with prospects…

Are you utilizing Drip Marketing in your business? If not, which of the concepts above would fit best with your skills and business model? Shoot me an email and we can discuss…

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How I Generate Blog Post Ideas

by "Get it Done Girl" on January 12, 2011 · 2 comments

in google reader,How To:,small biz,Social Media

Over the past year of being in business, I’ve written one blog post a week. That’s my goal. That’s what I do.

Others out there in the blogging community blog once/day. Several businesses in town have 4 or 5 bloggers who contribute to their business’ blog – now they can really churn out content!

Below are a few exercises I go through to generate blog post ideas:

I visit my well-populated Google Reader. Just reading what others are blogging about gets me in the blogging rhythm and gets the creative juices flowing. If you don’t know how to set up a Google Reader – read this.

I reflect back on recent conversations with clients, prospects and colleagues. Practically every interaction you have is a blog post waiting to happen. Whether it’s a teaching moment or a heated discussion, chances are, the readers of your blog could glean something from that exchange. This is where you bring value.

What do I know? It’s much easier to write about what you know or experiences you’ve had. Sometimes, I like to relate what’s happening in my personal life to a business topic so my readers can get to know me better.

I do a Google search on “What to blog about”. And find great ideas that never get old:

How do you generate blog post ideas?

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RSS Feeds and Social Networking

by "Get it Done Girl" on January 5, 2011 · 0 comments

in google reader,How To:,Social Media,Super Tools

I received a suggestion for a blog post via the Skribit widget on my website:

What Should I Write About? RSS Feeds from Social Networking

So here goes:

First, let’s define RSS Feeds, so we’re all on the same page:

RSS (most commonly expanded as  Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. Thanks, Wikipedia!

So, let’s take the social networking site, Twitter, for example. One way to leverage RSS feeds as they relate to Twitter would be to use www.search.twitter.com to create a search on Twitter conversations. Once you’ve refined your search, there is an RSS feed button in the upper right-hand corner. This allows you to subscribe to your Twitter search via RSS feed in your Google Reader (or whichever aggregator you use) so you never have to perform that search again; the search results just keep refreshing in your Google Reader…pretty nifty.

How about LinkedIn? One way to use RSS feeds on LinkedIn is in their “Answers” section. When I’ve got a question that I don’t know the answer to, I can go to this area of LinkedIn and ask the entire LinkedIn network (or just my connections) my question. And they can answer it. But who wants to go to the LinkedIn website all the time to find out if a new question has been asked in their field of expertise? This is where the RSS feed comes in handy. On the right-hand side of the Answers page, you can Browse the categories and select your field of interest. Once you select your field, there will be an RSS feed button on the right-hand side for you to subscribe to any updates made to your category.

Now, all you have to do is visit your Google Reader whenever you want to access your searches on Twitter conversations or find questions to answer on LinkedIn to demonstrate that you’re an expert in your field.

What other RSS feeds to you utilize with social networking? BTW, make sure you get my blog in your Google Reader. Go ahead, the subscribe button is at the top of this page…or just click here.

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Marketing Plan First

by "Get it Done Girl" on December 29, 2010 · 0 comments

in How To:,small biz,Social Media,Super Tools

Any good social media marketing plan always starts with a traditional marketing plan. Social media is a tool, or set of tools, used to execute your marketing plan.

If you own a small business or are a solopreneur and don’t have a marketing plan, here’s a great document I found that walks you through the steps of putting one together.

An excerpt from “7 Steps for Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan” from Social Media Today:

  • What are your marketing objectives? Make sure they are attainable and measurable. This stems from your marketing plan.
  • Who is your audience? Know where they are online and where they are already engaged in related, relevant conversations.
  • What are your assets? Examine your social media and online assets to see what you can leverage for full social media engagement. (See assets diagram.)
  • What tactics will you use? Choose the tactics that incorporate the most logical tools for what you are trying to achieve and who you are trying to reach.
  • What are your big ideas? Come up with some creative ideas that are repeatable and scalable to attract attention and provide value.
  • How will you measure results? Establish benchmarks, monitor and be clear what you are tracking and how.
  • Re-examine over time. What works? What doesn’t? What can you build upon? What can you improve? What needs to be scrapped?

See how a marketing plan makes engaging in social media more strategic and quantifiable? If you need help in this area, shoot me an email or give me a call to chat; I’d love to help!

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